The £29.5m revamp of the Belfast Waterfront complex is being previewed at the UK's biggest exhibition dedicated to the conference, meetings and events industry.

Visitors to Confex 2014 at the Olympia in London will be treated to a 3D walk-through animation movie of the new facility, which will see Northern Ireland's only purpose-built conference centre double in size.

Development work is due to start this summer, with the extended venue expected to be fully operational by mid-2016

Visitors will enjoy an additional 4,000 sqm of conference, exhibition, banqueting and breakout space equipped with communication and operational infrastructure to support any event. Jennifer Patterson, revenue and business generation manager at Belfast Waterfront, said the expansion would help Belfast become a must-visit business tourism destination in 2016.

"Investing £29.5m in our award-winning facilities will make a very attractive proposition to our loyal client base and we look forward to welcoming many more business opportunities within the national and international marketplace," she said.

Visit Belfast's Rachael Downing, director of business tourism, said the Waterfront revamp was a "real game-changer for the city".